Big Star - "Radio City" (1974)

Radio City, along with its predecessor, #1 Record, is one of those albums that music enthusiasts and critics all rightly revere, citing its influential qualities, reveling in its blissful pop melodies, etc... Being an avid reader of online music reviews, I felt quite familiar with Big Star before ever listening to their music. Yet I was reminded when listening to the band in the car with my girlfriend that outside of us hardcore rock music buffs, very few people have heard of them. So while Big Star is no doubt overrated by some (isn't every band?), they still deserve to be heard by a wider audience, especially since despite their lack of commercial success, they were no doubt a commercially-oriented band, and thus really aren't that hard to get into compared to a lot of my other lesser-known favorites.

As for the music itself, it is filled with jangly guitars and big hooks, and is no doubt the forerunner for various indie-alternative-pop bands of the 80s and 90s. Lead singer/songwriter Alex Chilton was not just a great tunesmith, but sings with a strained vulnerability that adds an undercurrent of unrest to the songs even while the guitars chime brightly. As a result, the band excels at rocking out (the near 6-minute jam "O My Soul") yet the best song here, "September Gurls," and arguably the best of their career, is a sweet, unforgettable mid-tempo ballad. So if you haven't heard Big Star, get this album! I'm reviewing this one because I was already very familiar with their debut, #1 Record, which is even better, being more diverse and featuring more tear-jerking ballads. On CD, the two albums are commonly packaged together, which is so much the better, since they're basically the same album anyways.

The Beach Boys - "All Summer Long" (1964)

Rating: 8

In my efforts to undo my good work in consigning so many of my records to the blue bin, I keep buying more. Somehow I found myself returning from what was supposed to only be a trip to the bridal expo with seven records on Sunday afternoon. But how can I resist when I can buy classic Beach Boys records for $3?! 

At any rate, in 1964, the Beach Boys had not yet become the Beach Boys of Pet Sounds or Smile. Yet I still find it a damn shame that I grew up thinking of this band as lightweight, for even though the lyrical subject matter indeed fails to extend beyond the topics of cars and girls, Brian Wilson was first and foremost a musical genius. For one side of this record, it's practically perfect, as the gorgeous harmonies are all here as is Wilson's immeasurable gift of melody. The songs are simple on the surface, of course, yet songs like "I Get Around" sound better and better every time I hear them. More detrimental than the lyrical deficits is the fact that the second side consists mostly of boring instrumentals and re-writes of every song on the first side, which is somewhat hard to fathom since the album is only 25 minutes long. Still, All Summer Long is an obvious keeper, and a great record in its own right. But of course, they would only get better! 

U2 - "No Line on the Horizon" (2009)

Rating: 5

It had certainly seemed to me that although U2 is no doubt past their prime, that at least they had settled into being a veteran band that could pump out a decent album every four or five years. No Line on the Horizon, though, kind of sucks, and drawing from the authority of having listened to every single U2 studio album, I declare this to be the worst record they've ever released. Well, at least tied with Pop.

The album is split up into very distinct sections - the first five songs are in the same basic style as How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, if not quite as dynamic and somewhat overlong, but at least this section fulfills the basic prerequisites of good U2 music, anthemic choruses and thick, chiming Edge guitar riffs. The next two songs are basically weaker re-writes of "Vertigo" and "All Because of You" from the last album, and somehow, "Get On Your Boots" (also the lead single!) is just as irritating as "Vertigo." And finally, after that brief and unwelcoming interlude, the band finishes the album with four more songs in the same style as the first five - the difference being that none of these has anything resembling an interesting melody or guitar part, thus ensuring that my final impression of the album is one of utter boredom.

So although the first part of the album is solid, it doesn't even hit the high points of their last two albums, and certainly doesn't make up for six songs in a row that I don't care for at all. But don't listen to me, Rolling Stone gave it five stars, so it must be great! Blue bin all the way.

Bette Midler - "Beaches (Soundtrack)" (1988)

Rating: 3

I probably am not comfortable enough with myself to keep this album even if I did like it. Fortunately, I don't! In fairness, I don't really know much about the movie for which this is the soundtrack, but the album consists of Bette Midler singing a mix of old standards and dated adult contemporary ballads. The most famous song here is "Wind Beneath My Wings," which is the best song Diane Warren never wrote. It has a nice melody, though. Unsurprisingly, the old songs fare better as they have more stripped-down arrangements, the exception being a horrid cover of "Under the Boardwalk," which is of course the first song on the album. But ultimately, there's not a lot to say about this record, and even if it was all covers of old standards, there wouldn't be much point to keep it around. Blue bin!

U2 - "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" (2004)

For once, U2 did themselves a disservice with their lead single. 8 years later, I still remember the annoying iPod commercials featuring "Vertigo" and cringe. And although probably every song ever is made much worse when edited and chopped into a 30 second product placement, I still think "Vertigo" is pretty terrible and much too reminiscent of their forced postures of the 90s, even if it doesn't have anything to with techno. I'm all for musical diversity, but time has proved that U2 isn't really good at anything besides epic rock songs that aim for nothing less than transcendence. 

And yet, the rest of the album much more resembles All That You Can't Leave Behind. If the 'unforgettable fire' they had in the 1980s is gone, and they at times feel like they're re-writing their best songs, they're also savvy veterans and they know they can't go wrong with a big Edge guitar part and a cathartically building Bono vocal. On songs like "Miracle Drug" and "Original of the Species," I feel that U2 magic all over again. This is also one of their more consistent albums, for once closing on a high note with "Original of the Species" and the stirring "Yahweh," plus nearly every song is memorable on some level. Weirdly, I think that "Vertigo" and the follow-up single "All Because of You" are actually the worst songs on the album, as they both attempt to rock out, which the band hasn't done well since 1984. But when they play to their strengths, which they do for most of the album, they prove that they can still do quality U2.

Pete Townshend - "Empty Glass" (1980)

I found this album at a local vinyl store for $4.00 yesterday, which is part of why I love buying records. I suppose I could have gotten it for free with a few clicks of my mouse, but $4.00 is a small price to pay for actually owning a physical album. At any rate, Empty Glass is the first solo album by Pete Townshend, best known of course as the guitarist/songwriter behind the Who, who I consider to be either the second or third greatest rock band of all time. And although the Who were nearing the end in 1980, Townshend still had quite a bit of creative energy left, as he showcases on this record.

It's not quite as good as the classic Who of course, since the other three members of the band were vital, even if Townshend wrote all the songs. But if you had to pick one member of a great band to go solo, you always want it to be the songwriter, and this album is full of creative melodies and arrangements. At times, it hearkens back to the Who, especially with the occasional tonal shift mid-sing into a plaintive, spiritual bridge like on "Rough Boys." There are also humble, yet bombastic epics like "Empty Glass" but also pure pop that you wouldn't see on most Who records like single "Let My Love Open the Door" and "Keep On Working." 

At any rate, Empty Glass is one of those great pop records that I find myself having a hard time describing in words. How many ways can one say that these songs develop in interesting and unexpected ways, while maintaining instant memorability and emotional appeal? It may sound easy, but it takes genius to write most of the material here, and in 1980, Townshend still had it. Keeper, of course.

U2 - "All That You Can't Leave Behind" (2000)

A quintessential example of a 'comeback' album by a veteran band. On All That You Can't Leave Behind, U2 abandons their electronic experiments of the 90s and returns to the uplifting melodic balladry of albums like The Joshua Tree. And although I always prefer to be a contrarian, the result is undoubtedly their best since 1991's Achtung Baby. In fact, after the first five songs, I wondered if this might be (for me, anyways) U2's long-awaited masterpiece. 

The first four songs I was already familiar with from listening to alternative rock radio in 8th grade as my local DJs couldn't get enough of the fact that U2 had finally returned to their traditional sound. Although I enjoyed them fine at the time, I can now say confidently that these singles are indeed the shit. Though they lack the 'edge' of their 80s work and feel somewhat calculated, it all works. "Beautiful Day" is the best U2-by-numbers song I could conceive of, and "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" and "Walk On" successfully showcase a sweeter side of the band. "Elevation" is probably the precursor of their dreaded iPod jingle "Vertigo" but has the benefit of actually being good. Throw in track #5 "Kite" (another anthemic ballad) and you have a first side that is 95% as good as the first side of Joshua Tree, for although it's not as powerful, this is as melodic as they've ever been.

Unfortunately, having moved past the innovative, fresh stage of their career, it was probably too much to expect that they might have finally found the cure for their notorious front-loading of albums. And in fact, this may be the most extreme example of bad album sequencing in the U2 catalog yet. Almost imperceptibly, the album slides into being pleasant rather than stirring, and then boring rather than pleasant. So I can't quite rank this one on the same level as their more famous albums. But it is definitely a keeper, and the first five songs come highly recommended.

U2 - "Pop" (1997)

Well, it's been a month since I wrote my last review on this blog. So much for putting 'one record a day' in the URL! But due to popular demand, I have decided to end my hiatus by reviewing U2's Pop, an album which I do not own on vinyl and thus can't exactly blue bin. Oh well. Since my blue bin is full anyways, I decided to invent a new conceit for this blog, which is to review the albums I listen to on my iPod on the way to and from work. But don't worry, I plan to continue to review vinyls too!

As for Pop, it continues the U2 trend of the 90s in dabbling with techno and electronica. Although I would strongly hesitate to call this good, I do have to give some credit to the group for not making total asses of themselves with albums like this one and Zooropa. My feeling, and I doubt I am alone in this, is that the strengths of U2 were always the righteous power of Bono and the Edge's thick, textured guitar playing. During their electronic period, these elements were basically gone or severely reduced. Still, whether it was their litany of hip producers of the time, or the Edge proving himself to be a versatile multi-instrumentalist, Pop features a lot of interesting guitar loops and samples and arrangements that frequently shift between moods and textures in a way that seemed beyond the band's grasp in the 80s.

So it's not the electronic music influences that make this a mediocre album, but rather, the fact that the busy arrangements ultimately can't mask what is Bono's weakest set of songs. Apart from the soaring, Joshua Tree throwback ballad "Staring at the Sun," there is little emotional power to be found here, and like even the best U2 albums, the melodies are mostly AWOL. The better songs are interesting mostly for their arrangements (like "MOFO" with its pumped-up bass line), and even some songs that do appear to have a lot going for them ("Discotheque") fail to gel into something cohesive. Still, it's all mostly mediocre to decent, apart from the truly wretched "Miami" (think Bono near-rapping over an industrial dance beat), so I can't get too angry about Pop. But if I could blue bin it, I would.